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PART I
THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS
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Introduction
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Theoretical foundations
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Introduction
The cognitive view, as an illustration, posits that readertext interaction can be subdivided into three processing clusters. First, in decoding,
linguistic information is extracted directly from print. Next, in textinformation building, extracted ideas are integrated to uncover text
meanings. Finally, in situation-model construction, the amalgamated
text information is synthesized with prior knowledge (e.g., Carpenter,
Miyake, & Just, 1994; Kintsch, 1998; Miller, 1988; Perfetti, 1994).
Thus, in this view, reading success is governed by three competency
groups: visual information extraction, incremental information integration, and text-meaning and prior-knowledge consolidation. Traditionally, reading research has pursued individual competencies within
each cluster, giving little attention to their functional, as well as developmental, interconnections.
From a developmental perspective, Gough and his associates
(Gough & Tunmer, 1986; Hoover & Gough, 1990) suggest a different way of dening reading competence. Their contention is that,
although learning to read entails the mastery of two basic operations
decoding and comprehension they do not develop in parallel. Both
reading and listening share similar processing requirements, and children amass comprehension skills in the course of oral language
development. By the time they begin to read, therefore, their listening
comprehension ability, in most instances, is already well developed.
In principle, children should be able to transfer their oral comprehension ability to reading, but in actuality, they cannot do so until
they attain sufcient decoding efciency. However, decoding, unlike
comprehension, does not evolve as a corollary of speech, thus requiring
substantial print-information processing experience. Lacking decoding competence, children have insufcient information to construct
text meaning. And, in the absence of automaticity, the attention required for decoding substantially detracts from what otherwise would
be available for comprehension. Thus, decoding creates a threshold
for exploiting the comprehension competence children bring to their
reading acquisition processes.
Reasoning from a functional perspective, Carver (1990, 1997,
2000) proposes yet another way of conceptualizing reading competence. He believes the purposes for which texts are read determine the
manner in which their information is processed. He describes ve reading gears, serving disparate purposes, on a continuum of cognitive
complexity. Consider, for example, three goals in text reading: locating
lexical information (scanning), detecting main ideas (basic comprehension), and acquiring new concepts (learning). Cognitively, reading for
lexical information is the least challenging, involving simple lexical
access. Reading for basic comprehension is somewhat more taxing
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Theoretical foundations
because it necessitates, beyond lexical access, syntactic analysis for information integration. Acquiring new concepts in learning, is the most
demanding of the three. According to Carver, processing requirements
increase as the reading gear shifts upward and, as a consequence
of greater task complexity, the reading rate decreases. Hence, he concludes that indices of comprehension success vary in accordance with
reading purposes. In the less demanding, lower reading gears (scanning
and skimming), competence implies speedy information extraction. In
the higher gears, however, accurate and complete text understanding
is more important than speed. The clear implication is that why,
and how, texts are read must be considered in determining reading
competence.
To sum up, then, reading competence can be dened from multiple
perspectives. The cognitive view, reecting the interactive nature
of reading, emphasizes three operations as the critical core of
competence: decoding, text-meaning construction, and assimilation
with prior knowledge. The developmental perspective, in contrast,
highlights sequential mastery of two operations decoding and comprehension and their functional interdependence. The reading gear
theory, moreover, suggests a third factor, reading purpose, to be incorporated in dening the core construct.
In exploring L2 reading development, these diverse perspectives
also need to be incorporated. Clarifying the constructs multilayered
complexities is essential for two reasons. Because L2 literacy learning
commences at various ages and under diverse circumstances, we can
reasonably assume that considerable variances exist in prior literacylearning experience. Without a reliable basis for determining what
has been mastered in L1, empirical examination of its inuence on L2
reading behaviors is not possible. In addition, the manner and rate
of L2 reading development also are likely to differ among learners
because L2 reading instruction begins at different points in their L2
development. Hence, without a precise construct denition, L2 reading competence cannot be differentiated from L2 linguistic prociency.
Lacking a ne-tuned description of the progressive stages of L2 reading acquisition, tracing developmental changes at a given point in time
is also prohibitive.
Dening L2 readers
The term L2 reading covers a broad span, and its use is excessively
general, often overlooking important differentiation, which has strong
impacts on how learning to read proceeds in a second language. For
example, there are several distinct L2 reader populations, including
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Introduction
preschool children without prior literacy experience, school-aged children with disparate L1 literacy experience, adult learners literate in
their L1, and adult learners nonliterate in their L1. L2 linguistic
knowledge is a common variable in each of these groups, but the
developmental proles may deviate in three critical dimensions: L1
literacy, cognitive maturity, and conceptual sophistication. Each of
these categories interacts with contextual variations relating to where,
how, and why L2 literacy is being pursued. For example, the learning
experience of six-year-old native Chinese-speaking children, acquiring
reading skills in English as a second language in an American public
school, is strikingly different from that of native English-speaking students taking an elementary Chinese course, to fulll a foreign language
requirement, in an American university.
Logically, an essential rst step in gaining a clear understanding
of L2 reading development is to determine the particular learning
characteristics of the specic group involved. Similarly, in considering
research implications for L2 reading instruction, it is equally imperative to clarify the nature of the target L2 readers. In the interest of clarity, it is important to note that in the subsequent chapters, L2 readers
generally refers to cognitively mature individuals already literate in
their respective rst languages learning to read a second language.
Other L2 reader cohorts are described separately wherever pertinent.
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Theoretical foundations
Principal approaches
The benets of cross-linguistic analyses
Potential variations in L2 processing behaviors stemming from
L1 properties also should be central in L2 reading research. The
importance is manifested in the growing interest in cross-linguistic
variances in language acquisition and processing. Child-language studies demonstrate that children are sensitized to the particular features
of their native languages relatively early. Such linguistic conditioning
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Introduction
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10
Theoretical foundations
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Introduction
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General organization
This volumes primary objectives are to establish a foundation for
expanding current L2 reading research by reexamining accepted L1
reading concepts from L2 points of view and, in so doing, to uncover
new research agendas particularly relevant to L2 reading development. To achieve these goals, the major component operations in
reading were subjected to sequential analyses, including syntheses of
existing L1 reading literature, summaries of L1 research implications,
explorations of L1 and L2 research integration, and suggestions for
future L2 research agendas. The theoretical underpinnings used in
conceptualizing and analyzing L2 reading competence are described in
Chapter 2. Thereafter, the content is organized, rst, according to processing components, and second, by major research issues.
The six chapters in Part II examine the component competencies
essential to reading comprehension, illustrating within each how text
information is extracted, integrated, and understood. Chapter 3 deals
with word recognition, explaining its function and procedure in the
context of reading. Chapter 4 delineates the symbiotic relationship
between vocabulary and reading comprehension, incorporating an indepth analysis of the nature and acquisition of word-meaning knowledge. Chapter 5 explores the parameters of intraword awareness
and their relation to lexical learning and processing, explaining the
facilitative benets of such awareness in word-knowledge development through reading. Next, the processes involved in intrasentential
information integration are described. Chapter 6 begins with an analysis of the linguistic sensitivity underlying sentence processing and
then progresses to an examination of its relationship to performance
variation. Research on discourse processing how text is progressively reconstructed in the readers mind is summarized in Chapter 7.
The chapter also deals with text coherence building and inference, as
well as the contributions of background knowledge to text comprehension. Chapter 8 claries the impacts of text-structure variables on
discourse processing by reviewing the distinct properties of narrative
and expository texts.
In the interest of a balanced view, Part III presents a holistic portrayal of reading, emphasizing the interconnections of components
described in the previous chapters. Chapter 9 focuses on individual
differences in reading acquisition and performance. Using systematic
comparisons of processing behaviors among good and poor readers,
it considers the cognitive and linguistic requirements for procient
reading as well as their comparative effect on performance variations.
Chapter 10 examines the nature of strategic reading, elaborating on
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